The Myth of the Eternal Return
Cosmos and History
1st Edition
Published on 9. October 2024
232 pages
978-0-691-23832-6 (ISBN)
Description
First published in English in 1954, this founding work of the history of religions secured the North American reputation of the Romanian émigré-scholar Mircea Eliade. Making reference to an astonishing number of cultures and drawing on scholarship published in no fewer than half a dozen European languages, The Myth of the Eternal Return illuminates the religious beliefs and rituals of a wide variety of archaic religious cultures. While acknowledging that a return to their practices is impossible, Eliade passionately insists on the value of understanding their views to enrich the contemporary imagination of what it is to be human. This book includes an introduction from Jonathan Z. Smith that provides essential context and encourages readers to engage in an informed way with this classic text.
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11/2018
Princeton University Press
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Persons
Mircea Eliade (1907-1986) was the Sewell L. Avery Distinguished Service Professor of the History of Religions at the University of Chicago. His many books include Shamanism: Archaic Techniques of Ecstasy, Images and Symbols: Studies in Religious Symbolism, and Yoga: Immortality and Freedom (all Princeton). Jonathan Z. Smith (1938-2017) was the Robert O. Anderson Distinguished Service Professor of the Humanities at the University of Chicago. He was the author of Imagining Religion: From Babylon to Jonestown and Relating Religion: Essays in the Study of Religion.
Content
- Cover Page
- Title Page
- Copyright Page
- Dedication Page
- Contents
- Introduction to the 2005 Edition
- Foreword
- Preface
- Chapter One: Archetypes and Repetition
- The Problem
- Celestial Archetypes of Territories, Temples, and Cities
- The Symbolism of the Center
- Repetition of the Cosmogony
- Divine Models of Rituals
- Archetypes of Profane Activities
- Myths and History
- Chapter Two: The Regeneration of Time
- Year, JSTew Tear, Cosmogony
- Periodicity of the Creation
- Continuous Regeneration of Time
- Chapter Three: Misfortune and History
- Normality of Suffering
- History Regarded as Theophany
- Cosmic Cycles and History
- Destiny and History
- Chapter Four: The Terror of History
- Survival of the Myth of Eternal Return
- The Difficulties of Historicism
- Freedom and History
- Despair or Faith
- Bibliography
- Index
